CD: Art Pepper

Art Pepper, Unreleased Art, Vol. III, The Croydon Concert (Widow's Taste). This 1981 concert in the London borough of Croydon captures some of the remarkable music the alto saxophonist made during the last year of his life. Pepper had absorbed some of the Coltrane influence that dominated him for a few years, shaken off the rest and emerged a more powerful individualist than ever. Driven by pianist Milcho Leviev, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett, Pepper bares emotions from tenderness to ferocity (in"Patricia," within the same few bars.) Laurie Pepper, the widow of the label's name, includes an illuminating, touching, essay about her husband.